Re: HTML Output for @table and @multitable

[Mahlon]

Hi Gavin,

I agree that the HTML is straightforward, but here are my specific concerns.

1) In the info output, there is an 'underline' after the header line, but no underline in HTML.

2) HTML compresses whitespace, so line-item columns appear much closer together than in the info output. Unfortunately it is only the line items that are compressed. The header line retains the original spacing which throws off the column alignment between header and line items.

3) Spacing between lines specified in the source does not carry over to the HTML, even if we insert a '@sp 1' into the source. Some tables in the source will specify line spacing and some will not. In the HTML, there is always an extra line in the <dl> sequence and never an extra line in the <table> sequence. Unfortunately, a post-processor has no way of knowing what the source intended because there is no clue in the HTML output.

All of this (except the clairvoyance) is cleanly handled by the provided CSS, and perhaps it's too much work to handle it with generated definitions. Still, someone may eventually get a brilliant idea about how to generate tables that don't need post-processing.

Mahlon

On 11/22/2014 04:05 AM, Gavin Smith wrote:

On Thu, Nov 20, 2014 at 5:20 AM, Mahlon <address@hidden> wrote:

Without the application of CSS style, the HTML output for both @table and
@multitable could be considered unacceptable for two reasons:

1) the formatting of the HTML output is rather embarrassing, and

2) it doesn't much resemble the 'info' output, neither in line spacing nor
in column spacing

Both of these issues can be corrected with CSS style alone, but you might
consider what could be done inside the texi-to-HTML converter.

I'm not sure if there is a problem here, after all in absence of CSS
the appearance of the page depends on the program (web browser) you
are using to view it.

Both the output for @table and @multitable appear to me to be
straightforward uses of HTML tags expressing the meaning of the
Texinfo source. Are there other tags that could be used instead, or do
you think there should be sensible CSS defaults?

@table output:

<dl compact="compact">
<dt>&lsquo;<samp>for</samp>&rsquo;</dt>
<dt>&lsquo;<samp>while</samp>&rsquo;</dt>
<dd><p>loop while the condition evaluates to &rsquo;true&rsquo;
</p></dd>
<dt>&lsquo;<samp>if</samp>&rsquo;</dt>
<dd><p>execute once if the condition evaluates to &rsquo;true&rsquo;
</p></dd>
</dl>

@multitable output:

<table>
<thead><tr><th>Animal</th><th>Cohort</th><th>Example Sentence</th></tr></thead>
<tr><td>cow</td><td>Placental</td><td>The cow jumped over the fence.</td></tr>
<tr><td>horse</td><td>Placental</td><td>The horse eats flowers and
grass.</td></tr>
<tr><td>wombat</td><td>Marsupial</td><td>The wonderful wombat
can&rsquo;t jump, but seems quite happy!</td></tr>
</table>

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